Public and Commercial Services Union

Most bus and coach drivers (we estimate 60%) are not tested and passed by the Driving Standards Agency as being competent but are in fact tested and passed by the private companies they work for.

A number of companies employ staff called delegated examiners. These are licensed by the Department for Transport to conduct the driving test and to award a bus/coach licence. In theory they are regulated by DSA.

Clearly there is an inherent conflict of interest in allowing companies to both train and test their own drivers; particularly in those companies where the delegated examiner is also the chief training officer.

Figures provided in a parliamentary question answer (Hansard 7 July 2009, column 642W) show that over five financial years (up to 1 April 2009) on average 49% of bus and coach drivers tested by DSA were passed as competent. In the same period delegated examiners had a pass rate of 60%.

Our driving examiner members, knowing as they do the standard of learner drivers, do not believe that over 60% of candidates are fit to pass the test.

Therefore in their professional opinion delegated examiners are not testing their work colleagues to the same rigorous standards as DSA. Thus potentially unsafe drivers are being let loose on the roads, driving heavy vehicles and carrying passengers.

DfT research shows “that drivers in companies utilising delegated examination arrangements were more likely to be reported involved in at-fault accidents within the first 6 months of passing the test than those in companies utilising DSA examination arrangements”. In other words candidates passed by delegated examiners are more accident prone than those passed by driving examiners.

Our belief that laxer standards lead to more accidents is also indirectly confirmed by ‘mystery shopping’ tests, officially known as Driver Quality Monitoring (DQM), conducted by DSA. Under this scheme DSA examiners carry out covert checks on bus drivers.

Over the financial years 2005-06 to 2007-08, of those bus drivers nationally subject to DQM, 31% were rated as unacceptable with serious faults. The figure for financial year 2008/09 is 24.9%. These figures hide wide regional variations - for example in the last financial year the percentage of bus drivers in Manchester judged as unacceptable was a staggering 42%.

DSA only conduct DQM tests for those companies that pay. It is probable that only the larger, more reputable companies hire DSA to conduct these tests (DSA will not disclose the names of those companies on commercial grounds). It is therefore reasonable to presume that the proportion of unacceptable drivers is likely to be higher in those companies that do not contract DSA. When the agency identifies a driver as being unacceptable or dangerous it passes that information on to the company that hires them. It does not follow up to see if that company takes any action concerning the driver.

The agency says of itself “DSA’s vision is “Safe Driving for Life”. PCS believe that DSA’s vision conflicts with its practice under the DQM scheme.

As said above delegated examiners are in theory regulated by DSA. In practice this is not the case.

In 2007 the Union ran a campaign arguing that delegated examiners should be safety checked to the same standard and frequency as driving examiners working in DSA.

From FOI answers PCS discovered that the 100 or so delegated examiners were safety checked on average less than once a year. Driving Examiners were tested at least twelve times a year.

Following our campaign it was agreed that both delegated examiners and driving examiners would be tested to the same standard and degree. The agency decided that this meant that all examiners would be tested at least six times a year.

Whilst driving examiners are being tested at least six times a year it is only recently that delegated examiners were checked to the same level.

The simplest way to ensure that all bus drivers are tested to the same, correct and safe, standard is have them all tested by state examiners in DSA.

PCS demands are:

• That all testing work currently done by delegated examiners be conducted by driving examiners in DSA;

• Pending that hand over of work that delegated examiners be tested to the same standard and degree as driving examiners;

• That the DQM scheme be extended to all companies so that all drivers can potentially be monitored; those drivers deemed "unacceptable" not be allowed to drive until they reach the required standard. This expanded DQM scheme to be funded by the bus industry as a whole.